Planning Corotor II install

[pacificrim]

I just bought a Chaparral Corotor II on eBay - its in the postal system right now. It comes with Star Track C and Ku Lnb, but I have a couple commercial LNBs - 2x Norsat 8520 and a mystery LNB to pick from and a Norsat 6606Afor Ku, though I'd prefer to find a 4106A or something along its specs. The 6606A has 1M stability, which doesn't sound very good. I have no idea if the Star Tracks are any good.

I have been running a Titanium CK1S with great success on both C and Ku on my 10ft KTI, getting all but a very few transponders - like AMC 21 12168 H 4444 even though I get all the rest on AMC 21, but this wouldn't be a hobby if I stopped when everything is working well - would it? I'm not entirely sure that the corotor will be any better than my current setup, but it is a hobby after all.

I already am running an ASC1, so after I run a shielded wire to run the corotor, I'm good there.

Here is a pic of the feed horn and LNBs I took down from a commercial setup recently. 2 are Norsat 8520. I don't know the other. Any idea what brand or model it could be? Any other suggestions for the Ku side?

 

[KE4EST]

At least for the most part it is not as expensive as some hobbies, eh Titanium

The nice part about a corotor is the ability to fine tune, while sitting on the couch and saving it.

 

[Cham]

I have a corotor here but haven't used it for a while. I used a Norsat 4208A for Ku, it seemed to work well for the most part, and an 8215 for C-band. Stability on these is listed as 250KHz.
Might consider using it again if I could get dual output LNBs without losing a few arms and legs..

 

[pacificrim]

I also like the idea that my setup will largely remain the same. I can set the ASC1 to output 18v and have the polarity change independently of LNB voltage. I guess the only snag is when pointing and peaking I won't be easily changing polarities with my meter

 

[beavs2112]

Here is a pic of the feed horn and LNBs I took down from a commercial setup recently. Any idea what brand or model it could be?

You lucky dog you! That's an Andrew Corp C-Band ortho with the original feed! Its for their c-band dishes ( the multi-piece steel ones and the aluminum one piece ones like mine ). You didn't salvage the dish also by any chance did you? Most Andrew prime focus c-band dishes are low f/d ratio like 0.3 so its good to have a matched feedhorn to properly illuminate the dish. Mine didn't come with the original ortho feed just the scalar. The giveaway is the raised aluminum standoffs that are at an angle. Any chance you could measure how far the feed sticks out from the scalar for me?

 

[pacificrim]

You lucky dog you! That's an Andrew Corp C-Band ortho with the original feed! Its for their c-band dishes ( the multi-piece steel ones and the aluminum one piece ones like mine ). You didn't salvage the dish also by any chance did you? Most Andrew prime focus c-band dishes are low f/d ratio like 0.3 so its good to have a matched feedhorn to properly illuminate the dish. Mine didn't come with the original ortho feed just the scalar. The giveaway is the raised aluminum standoffs that are at an angle. Any chance you could measure how far the feed sticks out from the scalar for me?

That is exactly the dish it came from. I could have taken the dish but it wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

You are welcome to the feed (minus the LNB's) for the cost of shipping. I love to see things get used and not thrown out or wasted collecting dust.

I have attached pics.

Any idea about the brand of LNB - the one that has the rusty bolts?

 

[beavs2112]

That is exactly the dish it came from. I could have taken the dish but it wasn't what I was looking for at the time.

You are welcome to the feed (minus the LNB's) for the cost of shipping. I love to see things get used and not thrown out or wasted collecting dust.

Any idea about the brand of LNB - the one that has the rusty bolts?

Thanks pacificrim for the pics. I had calculated how far out my chaparral ortho feed would have to stick out for a dish with a f/d ratio like 0.3 and that pic confirms it.

I will kindly accept your generous offer Many thanks. I'll send a PM with my details.

Unfortunately I don't recognize the other LNB. Maybe a California-Amplifier or New Japan Radio? Chances are good if the other LNB's used were DRO type like the 8520's then that one is also.

 

[beavs2112]

and a Norsat 6606Afor Ku, though I'd prefer to find a 4106A or something along its specs. The 6606A has 1M stability, which doesn't sound very good. I have no idea if the Star Tracks are any good. Any other suggestions for the Ku side?

I had salvaged a Star Trak C-band lnb and it was a beige color. 44 degrees K so not great noise temp but it works as a spare/test unit.
A 4106 should be fine for ku. Sometimes used ones can be found for a low price on the bay of E.

 

[pacificrim]

Success!

On Thursday I ran the shielded Cat5 (1 color pair for each polorizer wire) to the polorizer from my ASC1. Today I swapped out the CK1S to the Corotor II + with the Norsat 5520 Cband and 6606A Ku LNBs. Success on all fronts. The 2 TPs I generally use as my test for final tweaking are 113w 12046 and 125w 12068 because they are really hard to get. Anyway - I get them! I noticed that to bring in 12068 on 125w I changed the skew to 50deg and it locked more solidly. I guess that's the selling point of a corotor.

I'm sure I could do more tweaking but things worked out so well I'm calling it DONE - for now.

I was a little unsure of whether I really needed to do this upgrade, since I was already getting great signal across the arc, but that's what makes this a hobby, and now I'm glad I did.

Thanks for all your help - and not just posting to my thread, but for all the old treads I read through. Unfortunately, some guys are no longer with us, but I was very grateful for all their postings and info on this site. Cheers.

 

[pacificrim]

This was definitely a hobby-based decision. It cost me $150 in parts to get 2 channels which at best show interesting feeds occasionally. The Titanium CK1S worked great and got all the Ku and Cband I would have needed. Having a good satellite meter had this done entirely in an hour - it took longer to run the wire a few days ago than swap out /swap in and tweak today.

 

[pacificrim]

The Norsat 6606A Ku only lasted 4 days and then died. It was a little premature but it had a tough life next to the ocean for 10 years in its former life and fell off a roof before I got my hands on it. I put in the Star Track Ku which came with the corotor and it fired up fine albeit with lower signal quality. Last night I bought a NJR2535H on Ebay, so it'll be good to see how it performs. I wanted a 4106A but didn't want to pay that much and the specs are about the same - better stability for the NJR (100khz vs 150khz) but higher noise .8 vs .6

 

[flody1]

The Norsat 6606A Ku only lasted 4 days and then died. It was a little premature but it had a tough life next to the ocean for 10 years in its former life and fell off a roof before I got my hands on it. I put in the Star Track Ku which came with the corotor and it fired up fine albeit with lower signal quality. Last night I bought a NJR2535H on Ebay, so it'll be good to see how it performs. I wanted a 4106A but didn't want to pay that much and the specs are about the same - better stability for the NJR (100khz vs 150khz) but higher noise .8 vs .6

I've used the Corotor 11 for years and short of keeping a new servo unit around been great. I recently put a WNC 4x8 Powered Multiswitch in my system and done away with all the splitters, etc. It helped me on my 8.5 BirdView Solid

 

[KF4YLM]

My CPII suffered a linkage failure a few weeks ago. Stuck with single band stuff the moment.

I see eBay listing used Chapter CPIIs for about 150% the price of new ones from some broadcast vendors.... I think my replacement will be a new one.

 

[pacificrim]

The corotor is working great with the new servo - no complaints. I've never put a used LNB on dish, so while a little disappointing that the used (and abused) Norsat only worked for 3 or 4 days, at least I have a reference that it worked better than the Star Track for weak signals and hopefully this new NJR PLL coming in the mail will be better than the Norsat.

 

[pacificrim]

The NJR2535H arrived today and is working great. Much better than the Star Track and better than the Norsat 6606A. Just swapping the LNB on my due south AMC21 I went from 13.1 dB to 13.8. The feed channel of 12168H went from non existant to 11dB.